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DHARMA ( Hindu Ethics)

DHARMA ( Hindu Ethics)

It might, at first sight, seem reasonable, from the point of view of history, to pass next to the great speculative movement,the chief records of which are preserved in the Upanishacls.

DHARMA ( Hindu Ethics)

It might, at first sight, seem reasonable, from the point of view of history, to pass next to the great speculative movement,the chief records of which are preserved in the Upanishacls ; since that movement clearly appeared before the Mindu law of conductтАФdliarma^ was codified in the existing Sutras ; but the truth is that the dharma took shape at an earlier dale than the philosophy of the Upanishads ; and that it was side by side, and in a long process which lasted some three centuries, that the body of law and the body of thought and conviction gradually won their way to adequate expression in literature. The actual working out of the constituents of Hindu dharma took place in the minds of Brahman priests and teachers in theage of the Brahmanas.

Further, we are still in the realm of authority, and it is to authority that appeal is continually made in the literature which we propose now to study. Action precedes reflection, and the great mass of the rules which we shall find to have grown up in India are not the expression of ideals conceived by speculative thinkers, but, in the main, the outcome of custom, caste, and karma. At the same time, it is not pretended that speculation exercised no influence in their development. All that is maintained is that the actual social life of India took the form in which we propose now to study it in great measure independently of the currents of philosophical thought which were then in process. At all times speculation has been for the few* The multitude have been content to accept authoritative guidance for the conduct of their lives. 

We have seen how willingly the people have submitted to the imposition of sacrificial and magical customs. It has not been necessary for our purpose to deal with that subject except in a general way┬╗ Nor is it necessary for us to deal in detail with the developments that took place in connexion with such practices in later times. But there appeared in post-Vedic times a whole department of literature in which is gathered up all that had been taught and accepted in Vedic times regarding sacrifice, ritual, and practical  life  generally.^ For the expression of all this in concise form, so that it might be as little burdensome as possible to the memories of those who had to remember it, a new literary form was inventedтАФthe sutra. This is a literary form to which we have nothing parallel in our literature. The word itself is derived from the root siv = to sew, the word sntra itself meaning a thread. The term sutra is applied to a particular kind of short aphorism or rule, or to a book of such aphorisms, and the name may have come to be so applied either because each aphorism is a short line, or because the whole forms a string of aphorisms. In any case wc have in the j/z/r^-literature an example of extraordinaiy brevity in expression; into each single line there is compressed what would require a long sentence for expression in ordinary literary form. As Professor Macdonell has put it, the sutra^ is so compressed that the wording of the most laconic telegram would often appear diffuse compared with it And he also refers to an aphorism, according to which the composers of grammatical Sutras delight as much in the saving of a short vowel as in the birth of a son.^

The suira-ioYm may have appeared about 500 B. C., and the first great class of sutras is the Srauta Sutras, so called because based on sntti or revelation, in which are gathered up what is taught in the Brahmanas regarding the performance of the greater sacrifices. Then, also dealing with ritual, but with the ritual of the rites to be performed in the household from day to day, we have the Grihya Sutras. These are based on smriti or tradition. Then there is the great class of sutras, which dcnmnd our closer attention, those known as the Dharma Sutras, dealing with dharvia^ a term to be explained presently. These too arc based on smiiiL VaiтАЩious other classes of works were produced in the sHtra form, but these we may pass over for the present.

^ For a comprehensive study of this literature, see Hillebrandt, RUtialLiteratur^ Vedische Opfer tend Zmiher^ and Jolly, Rechi tend Sitte^ both in the * Grundriss h ^ Sanskrit Literature^ p. 36.^

We may jxiss over the Srauta Sutras, and there is not muchin the Grihya Sutras that need detain us ; and what there is that has any significance for our study may be taken in connexion with other aspects of dharvia. In the Grihya Sutras and the Dharma Sutras together we have an extraordinarily interesting and valuable source of information regarding the practices, ritual and ethical, followed by the people of ancient India in their daily lives. These works show but little evidence of the philosophical speculations that were agitating many minds at the time. Not that their authors were necessarily ignorant of, or uninfluenced by, the philosophical thought of their time ; but these speculations were for the few, not for the many. For the many the old polytheistic faith, with all its rites and vsacrificcs and,all the rest, had its value and its truth.

Passing from this general view of the character of the Sutra literature, we may now try to define the term dharma, which is the subject of the class of sntras with which we arc now specially concerned. It is a word which is exceedingly difficult to translate, and one of the consequences of this has been that unscholarly and unscrupulous writers have sometimes used misleading English equivalents in their endeavours to establish their own theories. A recent writer, for example, says that dharma means the Law of Being, and that a manтАЩs dharma is his Ideal. The term has again been variously translated as Religion, Virtue, Law, and Duty. Now, all these words convey something of the meaning, but to use any one of them as an equivalent for it is highly misleading. Much confusion might be avoided if it were i*ecognizecl once for all that the term dharma, as used at any rate in the Dharma Sutras, was applied to a condition of things to which modern terms like religion, virtue, and law are strictly speaking inapplicable. In India in those days no clear distinction was drawn between moral and religious duty, usage, customary observance, and law, and dharjua was the term which was applied to the whole complex of forms of conduct that were settled or estab ILshech This is a fact which should contain no difficulty for those who have made even the slightest and most superficial study of the origin of moral ideas; yet it is one of those facts that many of those who have undertaken to expound Indian thought have failed to apprehend.

Various Vedic schools had their own bodies of suiras^ of which the Srauta Silfrii formed the first and largest part; then came the Grihya Sntra^ and then the Dharma Sutra. The whole body of Sutras connected with religion belonging to a particular school was called the Kalpa Sutra of that school. The Dharma Sutras of only three Vedic schools have been preserved to us, viz. those of the Apastambas, liiranyakcsins, and Baudhayanas. These all belong to the Taittirlya division of the Black Yaj2irveda. Along with these wc must take the Dharma Sutra of Gautama and the Dharma Sutra of Vasishtha; they are not connected with other sfitras in a Kalpa Sutra, but they must have belonged to a Vedic school. Then more important perhaps than all the other writings that deal with dharma is the Mdnava Dharma ^dstra^ which has furnished scholars with a problem of very special interest. Before the introduction into India of the methods of Western scholarship, Hindu scholars universally regarded this work as containing the teaching of Maiiu, тАШ the son of the Self-existent", who received it direct from the Creator, Brahman. -Modern scholars are now agreed that the Mdnava Dharma Sdstra is a recast of an old Mdnava Dharma Sutra, a lost law-book of the school of the Manavans, one of the families which gave themselves to the study of Vedic science. This Dharma Sdstra has been given a position of special authority by Hindus.

It must not be supposed that this short list exhausts the catalogue of ' legal тАЩ literature, which is very extensive. There is, for example, the very important Vaishnava Dharma Sdstra or Vishmi Smriti {The Institutes of Vishnu)^ which attained its present form probably about A. D. 200; and many other Dharma Sastras of later date. A full discussion of the legal literature is to be found in the first part of Jolly's Teo/it und Sitie.

There are many problems of a literary and critical kind connected with this dharma literature. These need not detain us here, for in discussing the ethical ideas embodied in it, within the limits which must here be observed, it will be impossible to do more than draw attention to certain features that characterize this whole class of literature, without entering into details in which different writings reveal peculiarities or inconsistencies with each other. In any case, it is important to note that the various Dharma Sutras, while teaching much that would be generally accepted, in many details set forth teaching that would not be accepted outside their own school, or at any rate, which would not be universally accepted. In matters of detail each school freely criticizes the others. The Mmava Dharma Sdstra probably owes its authority partly to the fact that the compiler contrived to combine in it elements taken from other Dharma Sutras besides that on which it is directly based, so producing a very compendious though not always self-consistent work on dharma. Its authority was still more strongly established as an outcome of the fiction by which it came to be connected not with the Manavans but with Manu, the father of the human race. 

The Law Books are among the most remarkable witnesses to the place that has been occupied by authority in the direction of the Indian mind. The same might be said in a sense regarding the Brahmanas, but there we have seen authority operative in a more limited sphere. The Grihya Sutras and the Dharma Sutras presuppose the development, largely under the direction of the priests, of an extraordinary complex of ritual and ethical forms to be observed in the daily life of the people. From the ethical point of view this is perhaps the most important aspect of this whole class of literature. So it is well that we should consider the peculiar character of this authority and the ways in which it is supported and maintained. These are two tasks which cannot be clearly separated from each other, but we shall endeavour as clearly as possible to indicate (1) the way in which the conduct of the individual was determined by authority, and (2) the means by which that authority was maintained.

Looking first at the peculiar character of the authority which determined the course of conduct, even the most casual reader must be impressed by the way in which the individuars course is mapped out for him. It may be doubted whetherany other religious system has ever provided instructions for the conduct of life that have been so full and so detailed. The task that was set the individual may not unjustly be likened to that of the child who is given line pictures which he may colour for himself. He may vary the colouring according to his fancy, but the outline is provided. Perhaps this figure errs on the side of exaggerating the extent to which the individual is free.For on all sides and at every point the individual finds prescriptions of which he is the subject or the object Before he is born, dharma has taken to do with him. Ofthe forty samskdras or sacraments which are prescribed in connexion with the more important changes in oneтАЩs life, there are some that are prescribed for performance before oneтАЩs birth and others after oneтАЩs death. The ethical significance of this in itself is not great, but it is symptomatic of the way in which life has been overlaid with ritual. Then there is caste, with all the restrictions that it involves in so many different waysтАФin matters of food and social intercourse, occupation, and indeed in almost all departments of human activity. Then there are the four dramas, now very definitely fixed. Life has become definitely divided into stages, each with its own complex of duties, and indeed there are few situations in any stage of life in connexion with which the duty of the individual is not prescribed. It is particularly in the teaching regarding caste and the dsrainas that the static character of Indian society is manifested. It is unnecessary for us here to examine the details of these prescriptions, for that would cany us into spheres that have no directly ethical significance, but it is desirable that we should give some attention to the ways in which through the operation of these institutions the activity of the individual was limited. 

Taking caste first, we find that the peculiar position and functions of each of the four caste divisions arc frequently explained with great fullness. The Mmava Dharina-idstra^ in the form in which it has come down tons, prescribes the forms of livelihood to be followed by the members of the different castes, and to this account there are parallels in other Sastras.

But in order to protect this Universe, He, the most resplendent one, assigned separate (duties and) occupations to those who sprang from his mouth,

arms, thighs, and feet. To Bnlhmans he assigned leaching and studying  (the VedaJ, sacrificing for their own benefit and for others,

giving and accepting (of alms). The Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow gifts,

to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), and to abstain from attaching himself to sensual pleasures.

The Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money,

and to cultivate land. One occupation only the Lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these other three castes.^

But this is merely an outline prescribing in general terms the kinds of occupations which the different classes are to follow. There is an almost infinite number of regulations providing for the behaviour of the individual, prescribing theconduct which he is to follow in maii}^ relations within the caste, specifying offences which arc to be punished by expulsion from the caste and penances that are to be performed with a view to readmission, showing the worth and standing of the different castes in relation to each other and the respect due by the lower to the higher.

^ Manii^ i. 87-91.

In a great multitude of subtle ways the place of the individual in the social organism is defined for him. Let us note only a few points by way of illustration. The Brahmans stand at the head of the organization, and the position and authority accorded to them are very remark able :

Know that a Brahman of ten years and a Kshatriya of a hundred years stand to

 each other in the relation of father and son ; but between these two the Bnihman is the father.^

The Kshatriya class, as the class which protects the world, is also to be 

held in high honour, though in honour much inferior to the Brahman.

A king and a Brahman deeply versed in the Vedas, these two uphold

the moral order in the world.

The almost immeasurable superiority of the Brahman even tothe Kshatriya is partly expressed in the marvellous powers attributed to the Brahman :

Let him (the king) not, though fallen into the deepest distress, provoke Brahmans to anger ; 

for they, when angered, could instantly destroy him together with his army and vehicles.^

The Vaisyas, the workers and traders, come next to the Kshatriyas. Their duties are of a humbler, though necessary kind, and as the performers of these duties they are sometimes classed with the Sudras. If these two castes swerved from their duties the whole world would be thrown into confusion But there is this vital distinction between the Vaisyas and the Sudras, that the former are classed with the Brahmans and Kshatriyas as twice-born, i. e. they may undergo the ceremony of initiation which marks what is called the second birth, with all the social and religious privileges for which it qualifies one; while the Sudras are cut off from these privileges. Only certain parts of the sacred law arc to be fulfilled by them ; they may not hear, learn, recite, or teach the Veda ; and they are subjected to all manner of other disabilities.

^ Manu, ii. 135. ^ Gautama^ viii. i. ^ Mamif ix. 313.

 They are a despised, worthless, and unlucky class, тАШ created by the Self Existent to be the slave of the Brahman:

That Kingdom where Sudras are very numerous, which is infested by
atheists and destitute of twice-born (inhabitants'), soon entirely perishes,
afhicted by famine and disease."

These few quotations will perhaps serve to convey some meagre idea of the extraordinary way in which by caste the position and functions of the individual arc determined for him.Take all this in connexion with the rules prohibiting the mixing of castes, threatening terrible punishments and judge- (meats to persons having marital intercourse with persons of other castes, and covering with shame the olTspring of such mixed unions, and we realize how extraordinarily organized is the society which the Law Books represent. In any kind of society it is obviously essential that there should be some sort and degree of fixity in the matter of institutions and forms of social behaviour. But in any progressive society there must be liberty of action on the part of the individual, within limits ; there must be for him the possibility of escape from the circle into which he is born into another and wider one. In all social * life, as ill all social theory, we see the struggle between the two tendencies, the tendency to change and the tendency to con serve, and it is always difficult to give to each that measure of^ influence which shall be best for society. The spirit of change run riot means social chaos, while the spirit of conservatism in its extreme expression means the suppression of most of the highest capacities of human nature. The latter is of course the less dangerous tendency in its extreme expression. Any kind of order is better than no order. More than that there^is something comfortable in having one^s position exactly defined for one and one's work marked out ; and so far as this work is of a mechanical kind there is the possibility of acquiring great perfection in the performance of it.

On the other hand there arc still evidences of belief in the greater value of the ascetic life as a means to the attainment of deliverance. It is laid down, for example, that, immediately on the completion of his studies, ainan may become a sa^tnyasi. without having passed through the stages of the griliastha and the vanaprasiha. Apastamba says:

Only after having fulfilled the duties of that (order of students) h
<тАШ shall go forth as an ascetic, remaining chaste."

On the contrary, it is said in the Mdnaroa Dhanna Sds/ra:

When he has paid the three debts (i.e. to the sages, the manes, and the gods), let him apply
 his mind to the attainment of final liberation ; he who seeks it without having paid his debts
 sinks downwards. Having studied the Vedas in accordance with the rule, having begotten 
sons according to the sacred law, and having offered sacrifices according to his ability, 
he may direct his mind to (the attainment of) final liberation.'тАЩ

This contradiction reveals the confusion of mind that existed and that still exists in India regarding the value of the ordinary round of human life. But it seems to be clear that the tendency in the Law Books is to push the last two orders into a position of less importance. At the same time, they are two of the four orders, and their duties have to be defined, and at times language similar to that of the Upanishads is used regarding the value of the life lived in the fourth order.

We shall not here enter into the details of the life lived in the third and fourth orders, which is expounded with great fullness in the Law Books. It is of importance, however, that we should note the significance of the fact that the ascetic ideals which are embodied in the life of these orders have so
important a place assigned to them. 

^ Apastamba^ ii. 9. 21. 2. " Ib.^ ii. 9. 21. 8. ^ Mami^ vi. 35-6.

Whether or not the life of the householder is the best, the individual comes at least at the end of his life to a stage when he should forsake it for
another form of life free from worldly ties. 
We have thus seen in a general way how through the institution of caste, and, in a less marked way perhaps, through the institution of the dsrainas^ the course of the individual is defined for him. In all this the idea of authority is fundamental. The details of conduct are not organized by reference to any end in the pursuit of which the individual can exercise freedom. There is an end, the same end as we find to be given intellectual formulation in the Upanishads, but the individual does not by reference to it judge the value of forms of conduct or discover ┬л new duties. These are laid down for him once for all, and his business is unquestioningly to fulfil them. When the voice of authority is silent there is no other principle of guidance exceptthe inclination of the individual. This comes out in various of the Law Books, and may be quoted in the words of the Mdnava Dharma ^dstra in the form in which we now have it:

The whole Veda is the (first) source of the sacred law, next the tradition and the virtuous 
conduct of those who know the (Veda further), also the customs of holy men, and (finally) self-satisfaction.^

We come now to the second part of the inquiry which we proppsed, viz. the means by which this authority was maintained. This involves a discussion of the system of education described in the literature which we are now studying. The early Indian thinkers realized as clearly as Plato did the im portance of education as an instrument for the moulding of the minds and characters of the guardians of the social order, though unlike Plato they busied themselves more with the practice than the theory. While we are concerned here with the ethical significance of this system of education, we must not imagine that it was only in this aspect of it that it was important.

^ Ma?iu^ ii. 6,

 In the Upanishads we shall see how the intellectual acumen of youths of ability was developed, and into what amazing flights of philosophical speculation they were fitted to soar. But criticism was not turned upon life or upon current morality as in the case of so much of the speculation of ancient Greece and modern Europe. It was turned upon life in the sense that the illusorincss of it was the constant theme of their thoughts, and it was turned on current morality in the sense that it was held that it had no longer any validity for him who had attained the goal. But it was not questioned whether the current morality was valid for those who live in the world. For them the Vedas as expounded in the words and lives of holy men was all the guide they needed.

acumen of youths of ability was developed, and into what amazing flights of philosophical speculation they were fitted to soar. But criticism was not turned upon life or upon current morality as in the case of so much of the speculation of ancient Greece and modern Europe. It was turned upon life in the sense that the illusorincss of it was the constant theme of their thoughts, and it was turned on current morality in the sense that it was held that it had no longer any validity for him who had attained the goal. But it was not questioned whether the current morality was valid for those who live in the world. For them the Vedas as expounded in the words and lives of holy men was all the guide they needed.

Of him who gives natural birth and him who gives the knowledge of the Veda, the giver 
of the Veda is the more venerable father; for the birth for the sake of the Veda 
ensures eternal rewards both in this life and after death.

In all his behaviour in the presence of the Guru the pupil is to show to him the greatest deference. He is to come near to his teacher with the same reverence as to a deity, and many instructions are given as to the manner in which he is to bear himself in his presence. He must not speak to him first, and in addressing him he must always use some designation of honour. He must not sit when the Guru is standing ; he must not sit in such a position that the wind blows from him towards the Guru ; even when the Guru is not looking towards him, he must keep his face turned towards the Guru, He must in all things be obedient to the Guru. He must never sleep when the Guru is awake, and his first duty in the morning after he has performed his devotions is to go to the Guru and embrace his feet . . * 

^ ManUy ii. 146.

 These are but some of the many injunctions laid upon the student touching his relation to his teacher. To the Gurids wife an honour and deference also very profound are to be shown. In other ways also he is subjected to rigid discipline. Chastity and abstention from various kinds of food are imposed upon him. So also he must avoid various kinds of amusement. He must not injure any living creature, he must be truthful, and he must refrain from strife. He must sleep on the ground and he must beg his food, eating only what the Guru leaves for him of what 'he collects. The youth was thus subjected to a discipline extending over many years, the importance of which as a means of rendering him amenable to authority it is impossible to exaggerate. ^ We are all familiar with the principle involved in this kind of education. The idea is the same as that which is expressed in the education which is still given as a preparation for service in some religious orders, and we know how through such a system of education the mind and character of a youth can be moulded. But it is a training not in self-reliance and independence of judgement, but in subservience to authority and reverence for what is established just because it is established. 

Plato says in the Republic that recourse must be had to fables in the training of the youth of his ideal state in order that they may be brought to I'ealize that the social class in which they find themselves was not arbitrarily chosen for them but was theirs before birth. It is interesting to observe how what Plato recommends in theory was followed by the Indians in practice. * Citizens,' says Plato, тАШ we shall say to them in our tale, you are brothers, yet Go

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